A confident memory put an innocent man in prison
She studied her attacker's face and picked Ronald Cotton with certainty, then learned memory can replace what was seen with what was chosen.
Andrew Huberman · How to Improve Your Memory & Cognitive Function at Any Age | Dr. Alan CastelShe told herself she would not forget. During a long attack, the woman decided that if she survived she would remember her attacker's face so she could identify him later. At one point he was inches from her throat, and she studied him with purpose.
When police later showed her a lineup, she took her time. Alan Castel, a UCLA psychology professor who studies human memory and aging, says she said choosing felt like taking a multiple-choice test. She pointed to Ronald Cotton. Cotton had an alibi, but it did not hold up, and he was found guilty.
The case shows how memory can fail even when someone is trying hard to get it right, and why confidence is not the same as accuracy. Memory is rebuilt each time it is recalled. Castel says memory can be contaminated the way other evidence can be, and an identification made in a lineup can replace what was actually seen.
That risk was higher here for a reason researchers recognize. The identification was across races, and people are generally less reliable at identifying someone of a different race than their own. Castel says the witness had high confidence for good reason, but accuracy might not match.
Only decades later did DNA evidence show that Cotton was not the attacker. He was exonerated. Castel says the woman felt terrible about what had happened. Castel said she was "trying to do what she felt was her job" and take "someone who she thought was guilty off the street."
Later, the two got to meet, and she could apologize to him.
Questions people ask
How are police lineups supposed to be done to reduce this kind of mistake?
A lineup should be run blind, so the officer does not know who the suspect is and cannot give cues, and witnesses should be warned the culprit may not be present. Researchers also recommend recording the witness's first confidence statement before any feedback, because confidence can grow after confirmation.
How common are wrongful convictions based on eyewitness mistakes?
Yes. Since the 1990s, DNA testing has led to more than 200 exonerations in the United States in cases involving mistaken eyewitness identification, according to the Innocence Project. Eyewitness error is the leading contributing factor in those wrongful convictions.
Why would picking a face change what someone remembers?
Memory is reconstructive, meaning the brain rebuilds an event from fragments plus expectations each time it is recalled. New information, such as a face seen in a lineup or a leading question, can be woven into that reconstruction so the person honestly remembers the updated version.